1. Field of the Invention
My present invention relates to winter sports equipment, and more particularly to devices of the kind sometimes called skishoes, which combine certain aspects of skis with certain aspects of snowshoes and thus are adapted to permit the user thereof to traverse substantially horizontal or upwardly sloping terrain by walking, much as one may do with snowshoes, and yet to slide forwardly over downwardly sloping terrain, much as one may do with skis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of skishoes are known in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,698, issued to James W. Greig on Jan. 21, 1975, discloses a combination snowshoe and ski which comprises a hollow light-weight plastic envelope which is longitudinally corrugated along its upper portion and along its bottom portion, exhibits transversely extending wedge-shaped corrugations which allow the snowshoe ski to slide forwardly but resist rearward movement, with the longitudinal and transverse corrugations being connected together to rigidify the snowshoe ski and with a foot binding on the upper portion adapted to retain the snowshoe ski on a variety of sizes of footwear.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,896, issued to Vincent D. Detoia on Dec. 23, 1975, discloses an attachable device which may be mounted on a ski so as to permit the ski to serve either as a snowshoe or a ski. The device incorporates an assembly of cleats that are retractably mounted over slots fitted in the ski such that the cleats may be pressed into a first position in which they project below the bottom surface of the attached ski or into a second position in which they rest flush with the bottom surface of the ski.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,369, issued to Paul H. Brunel on Jun. 15, 1982, discloses a ski-shoe for traveling on snow which has an elongated generally flat baseplate having an upwardly curved front end and a pair of longitudinally extending side edges. Respective upright sides extending the full length of the baseplate have lower edges joined to the side edges of the baseplate. A pair of side rails extending outwardly and downwardly from the upper edges of the sides and having lower edges lying above the baseplate form downwardly open channels with the respective sides. The foot of the user is secured to the baseplate between its front and rear ends and between the sides. At least one flap is pivotal underneath the baseplate between an axis lying ahead of the flap between and upper position lying generally against the baseplate and a down position extending transversely downwardly from the baseplate. The sides, rails, and baseplate all are made integrally of a synthetic resin and the device has an overall length of less than one meter.
It is believed that the documents listed immediately below contain information which is or might be considered to be material to the examination of this patent application.
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